The existence, rapid dissemination and pervasiveness of software intended to surreptitiously monitor and report back on a computer user's activities, passwords, and/or other sensitive and private information (“spyware”) is a major and growing problem for users of personal computers (PCs) and other computing platforms. At present, a number of tools and software programs have been offered in an attempt to provide spyware removal capability. At present, however, all share the same limitation of negatively affecting the user's ability to productively employ the computer “desktop” or other computer resources while the anti-spyware tool is scanning and cleaning the desktop. Put simply, conventional spyware scanning and removing tools employ too much computer resource at one time to enable the user to continue working without interruption in the computing environment. Instead, the user of a conventional spyware scanning and removal tool must stop working and allow the spyware scan to execute and complete before the user can return to other work.
It would therefore be desirable to provide spyware detection, scanning and removal methods, systems and tools that would enable detection, scanning and removal of spyware without significant interruption to a user's computing activities.
It would also be desirable to provide such methods, systems and tools that could execute in a “background” mode without substantially affecting “foreground” computing activities.
It would further be desirable to provide such methods, systems and tools that are simple and efficient to use, and easily adaptable to a wide range of computing platforms, including PCs and others.